Loes Koomen

15 May - 27 June 2020

We proudly present a new series of paintings by Loes Koomen. The exhibition ‘Happy Buildings, Sad Trees’ is the first collaboration between the artist and the gallery.Online preview on Gallery Viewer 9 May 2020.In collaboration with Manuela Klerkx.

Unlike many abstract painters, Koomen's work is not only about themes such as color, shape or composition. The often abrasive colors - which are then polished, then roughly applied to the canvas - and elusive shapes (do I see traces of a tractor wheel, a gingham tablecloth, a piece of garden fence or a flower?) are a translation of the artist’s reflections upon social developments and situations such as inequality, discrimination, or - as in this exhibition - the gap between city and countryside.

Striking in this series is the absence of the use of black paint, which is strongly present in almost all previous work. In her most recent paintings, Koomen uses only four colors that strongly challenge each other. A surprising element is the way shapes we recognise from her earlier work now lead to a new visual language.

Koomen: “I don't tell a story, I don't have a message either. I just translate things that concern me to the canvas, into abstract images in which the composition and use of color are the protagonists.”